A Breakdown In Communication
by forestwife
Summary: 10th Doctor. A malfunction in the TARDIS translation circuit causes a few problems for Rose, Jack and the Doctor. My first story, please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

A Breakdown in Communication

Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all it's characters etc belong to the BBC. I don't own anything (unfortunately for me…)

Author's notes: Ok, this story is set in season 2 some time after School Reunion, but before Age of Steel, and the Doctor and Rose have been reunited with Jack.

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Chapter 1

Rose walked into the console room, took one look around and asked "Ok, what're you doin' now?"

There were wires and pieces of machinery everywhere and all she could see of the Doctor were his legs poking out from under the console, where he was evidently tinkering around with something. However, immediately after asking the question she regretted it when he started spouting technobabble where she only understood every other word. She went and sat on the seat, only half listening to what he was saying, the other half of her was wondering if they could ever be more than just friends.

Her mind was drawn out of her daydream and back to the here and now when the console that the Doctor was under exploded in a shower of sparks and bits of wire. As she rushed to see if he was ok, the Doctor shot out from under the console, nursing a burnt hand and muttering in a strange, but beautiful language that she didn't understand. From his tone of voice however, she guessed that he was using some quite colourful curses.

Rose tried to take the Doctor's hand to assess how badly he was burnt, but he waved her off, still speaking that strange language.

"What's the matter? Doctor, are you ok?" Rose asked.

At this, the Doctor turned around to look at her and said something else in a clearly questioning tone.

Rose just shook her head and pleaded "Doctor I don't understand, please just speak English and tell me what's going on"

But the Doctor just looked blankly at her before a look of dawning realisation crossed his face. He dashed to the damaged console and started poking through the wires before turning angrily around, and, with an exclamation Rose didn't' understand, kicking over the nearest toolbox.

It was at this point that 'Captain' Jack Harkness came into the console room saying "I found those wires you wanted Doc, and your sledgehammer, but are you sure that it will do the trick? Because I'm really not sure that…" He trailed off at the blank, confused look on the Doctor's face. "What's goin' on?"

Then, the Doctor said in very slow, halting English, with a very strange accent "Jack, I think we have a … problem"

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The Doctor paused, evidently thinking hard "The...err…" Unable to think of the right word he gestured towards a particular bit of the damaged console "It is…broken"

Jack walked over to the console and inspected the part that the Doctor was pointing at, muttered "damn" and then turned back to Rose. "The TARDIS's translation circuit is broken," he explained.

"How long will it take to fix?" Rose asked, still looking at the Doctor, who was, it seemed, already trying to fix it.

"I'm afraid I don't know Rose, I may know a little about the TARDIS, but the Doctor's the expert, you'll have to ask him… and possibly have to play charades with him to get him to understand you," Jack answered.

Rose went over to the Doctor and said hesitantly "Doctor?" When he continued almost frantically to poke at the wires with his sonic screwdriver, she raised her voice a little "Doctor?" This time he turned to look at her.

"Umm, I was just wond'ring, how long will it take to fix the translator?"

The Doctor merely frowned at her, as if confused. She tried again, speaking slowly.

"How long?" She gestured at the console "How much time will it take?"

The Doctor seemed to understand this (or he hazarded a guess and was lucky), because he said slowly "I do not know. Maybe it takes a week, or maybe it takes more, or maybe less" Then he added something else in the language that Rose was assuming was Gallifreyan before going back to work.

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A week later, Rose forced the Doctor out of the console room, where he'd been working almost 24/7 trying to fix the TARDIS's translator, and made him go to bed and get some sleep.

When she got back to the console room, Jack was there holding a large, dusty book.

"So you finally managed to get him into bed then?" He asked, smirking at the innuendo.

Rose gave him a look before replying, "Yeah, I knew all that rubbish about 'im not needing sleep like us 'stupid apes' was all just talk" She sighed, "What've you got there?" nodding her head towards the book.

"I've found us an English-Gallifreyan dictionary", Jack answered, grinning.

"Seriously?" Rose asked, reaching out for the book.

Jack handed it to her, "Yeah, I dunno why the Doc didn't think of it, probably to busy trying to fix the translator, but I figured with the number of libraries this place has, it must have one somewhere. So I spent all afternoon searching, and here we have it"

"That was a good idea, at least it'll make communicating with the Doctor a little easier 'til the translator's fixed" Rose said, looking at the book.

"Yeah, about that, I don't think that it's gonna be fixed any time very soon Rose" Jack said, growing serious.

"But, the Doctor said that it would only take 'bout a week" Rose protested.

"I think he was a little bit in denial Rose. I've had a look at it, and even though it's looking better than it was, it's still a mess in there. So I think, maybe, we should teach the Doctor English." Then at the look on Rose's face he added, "As well as fixing the translator of course, but I was just thinking, that in the meantime…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, no you're right Jack." Rose agrees "It's good idea, 'specially seeing as this probably won't be the last time the translator breaks… and I really don't like having to play charades every time I wanna ask 'im something"

"Great, we'll start tomorrow," Jack said, grinning again.

"Ok, but I'm goin' to bed now, 'cos I'm exhausted" Rose said yawning "'Night Jack"

"Night Rose"

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The next morning, when Rose entered the kitchen, she found that Jack and the Doctor were already there and drinking their respective cups of coffee and tea. It also seemed that Jack was already trying to teach the Doctor some more English. As she stood in the doorway watching them (they hadn't noticed her there yet), Jack was pointing at various items on the table, saying their English name, and getting the Doctor to repeat it. It was really very sweet, as well as a little bit funny, and she would have stood there watching for longer, but Jack spotted her and dragged her to sit as the table so that the Doctor could show her what he'd learned.

After the Doctor had, at Jack's prompting, told Rose the English names of everything on the table, Jack would have carried on with his 'lesson'. But as Rose caught the Doctor's eye, he gave her a look that clearly said _rescue me_, so she stood up, saying, "Actually Jack, maybe the Doctor should carry on with the repair work now, we don't want the TARDIS to never get fixed do we?"

The Doctor gave Rose a very grateful look and muttered "Thank You" in the accented voice that was starting to become familiar, as he escaped out of the door.

"I must say Jack, I'm impressed, I've never seen him run away so fast," Rose said, turning back to Jack.

"What? I was only doing what we said we would last night," Jack protested.

"Yeah, I know, but you were bein' a little bit, you know, patronising. I was thinkin' we'd just try to talk to 'im a bit more, so he could practise his English, and if he didn't know a word he could ask us"

"I guess that could work. I'm sorry, it just bugs me not being able to just ask him anything, anytime. Was I really being that patronising?" Jack asked, worried.

"You were a bit," Rose admitted "But don't worry 'bout it, it'll give us something to laugh about when this is all over" She added, smiling.

"Ok, well I'm off to go have a shower. You could go keep Doc company… unless you feel like joining me," he said, grinning broadly.

Laughing, Rose shook her head and said, "You wish, I'm goin' to go and have a chat with the Doctor, or try to."

The she left the kitchen and started walking down the corridors to the console room.

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Please review, this is my first fic!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rose found the Doctor looking at readouts on the screen on the console. She went and sat on the seat before saying to him. "Jack's right you know. I mean maybe he didn't go about it in quite the right way, and I bet you hated it. But you really should learn English at some point, even just because it would be nice to be able to talk to you while you're fixing stuff like this." She leaned back on the seat as the Doctor carried on working before adding, almost to herself, "Here's me sitting here babbling to myself, you have no idea what I'm saying do you?" She asked, not expecting an answer.

She was very shocked when the Doctor said slowly, "I understand a little, but you talk… fast".

Rose decided to try again, this time speaking a little slower, "Doctor? Jack was right. You should learn English." Hoping he would understand her.

She was pleasantly surprised when he seemed to understand and said, "Yes, I know. This is not the first time the… err… translator is broken. Last time I say I learn English, but I forget and Sarah Jane forget and so I… not learn English and not use it. Until now."

"Clearly. But your English isn't… bad. You just need to practice a bit, it's definitely better than my Gallifreyan that's for sure!" Rose said cheerfully. She then had to look up the word for Gallifreyan in the dictionary and show the Doctor (she couldn't read the symbols) before he understood what she meant. But for Rose it was worth it when he had understood, and he laughed. She realised it was the first time she had seen him laugh properly since the translator had broken. She also realised how much she had missed it and how much it seemed to lighten the whole atmosphere in the TARDIS.

Then he grinned at her, a grin that made her melt inside and that was almost reminiscent of his former, manic grin, before going back to work.

But there was one more thing that Rose wanted to know.

"So, Doctor, the whole time I've been with you, all this time, you've been speaking Gallifreyan and the TARDIS has been translating and you didn't tell me?" She asked, but when he just looked at her, she repeated it slower. "All the time, until now, you have been speaking Gallifreyan. Why did you not tell me?"

The Doctor paused, thinking, before he said, "Because until now, the TARDIS translate and so to you, I speak English and to me, you speak Gallifreyan, so I forget and it was not very…" he had to stop and grab the dictionary to look up a word, "important," he said finally once he had found the translation.

"Not important" Rose repeated, sounding incredulous, "You didn't think it was important to tell me that you don't even speak my language, just in case something like this happened and suddenly you didn't understand a word I say. Because this was kinda inevitable you know, you said it yourself that this has happened before, so you should've known that it could happen again." Here Rose temporarily finished ranting, until she saw the Doctor's confused face, which set her off again, "And, I hate having to repeat myself and talk slowly because you don't even understand what I'm saying anymore." Again, Rose stopped yelling, but this time she added quietly, "It's at times like this that I remember that you really are from a different planet." Then she ran out the room, with tears streaming down her face, leaving a very bewildered Doctor behind.

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Now sitting on her bed in her room with tears still staining her face Rose reflected on what had just happened.

_Oh, way to go Rose,_ she thought, _You just managed to cheer him up a bit, even made him laugh, and then you had to go and ruin it by getting hysterical at him over something that isn't even his fault. And, he didn't even understand why you were upset anyway so now he's going to be all confused and edgy. And—_

Rose was broken from her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder and then the Doctor sitting on the bed next to her.

"I am sorry," he said.

"You don't even know why I'm upset," Rose said, purposefully speaking slowing.

"Because I speak bad English," the Doctor replied quietly, and Rose instantly felt bad for making him think that he was to blame for her actions.

"No Doctor, this isn't your fault, it's not because of you, it's just this whole thing is so frustrating and annoying. Do you understand?" she asked hesitantly.

The Doctor nodded so she asked, "friends?"

The Doctor nodded again, looking a little happier and agreed, "yes, friends". So she hugged him and was very glad when he returned the hug.

Rose then stood up and pulled the Doctor to his feet, "Come on, if Jack finishes his shower, can't find us in the console room where I said we'd be and finds us both in my bedroom, we'll never hear the end of it!"

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A/N: Thank you so much everyone for your reviews! They have been very encouraging! I'm sorry if Rose's mood swing was too sudden, but I couldn't think of a way to change it, so I hope that it's ok. Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon, but I have exams so it might be about a week before I have time. Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who

Chapter 4

For the next couple of days, the Doctor and Jack were constantly hard at work repairing the TARDIS, and Rose was bored. She knew that the TARDIS was huge and that there was plenty to do in it, but she didn't have the heart to go exploring, so she had been just hanging around in the console room, passing tools where necessary.

When it became apparent that it would still be a while before the translator was fixed, she asked the Doctor if she could visit her mum and Mickey while she was waiting. A few minutes later their destination was set for London, the Powell Estate, 2007.

The plan had been for Rose to go and see her mum while Jack and the Doctor stay to fix the translator, but Rose didn't get as far as getting back to the console room with her jacket because only a minute or so after they materialised there was a banging on the door. When Jack opened it, Jackie rushed in, shortly followed by Mickey.

Jackie looked around, ready to throw her arms around Rose as soon as she saw her. When she didn't see her anywhere she stalked over to the Doctor and demanded "Where's Rose? She'd better be here and safe, you'd better not have left her God only knows where or gotten her hurt or something, or you'll have me to answer too."

Sensing that this might be the time to say something threatening and appear macho, Mickey added, "Yeah, me as well."

But now, Jackie had jumped to all the wrong conclusions and got it into her head that Rose was in some sort of trouble and was saying hysterically, "Oh God, my Rose could be lying in a ditch on some alien planet millions of light-years away, if they even have ditches out there!"

Throughout all this the Doctor had been looking pleading at Jack for help. His English was improving, but there was no way he could keep up with what Jackie was saying, not just because of her London accent stringing the words together, but because she was wailing at about 90 mph!

To his credit, Jack stopped smirking at the Doctor's discomfort and stepped up to Jackie with a charming smile on his face. "Hello there, you must be Jackie, I have heard so much about you. Rose is just coming, she just went to get her jacket."

Jackie looked embarrassed for a minute before her mood quickly switched to anger. Anger at the Doctor.

"Well, why didn't you say so? Do you enjoy letting me think that Rose is dead or hurt, eh? How sick are you?" After this last question, when the Doctor still didn't answer, she slapped him round the face.

Fortunately, just at this moment, before things could get really nasty, Rose came back in. "Mum, what're you doing?"

No one spoke for a moment, but then Jack told Rose, "Just a misunderstanding." Then, sensing from her impatient look that she wanted to know exactly what had happened, he explained. "Because you weren't here, your Mother thought that you must be dead and started yelling at the Doctor. I explained that you were just getting your jacket. So she yelled at the Doctor some more for not telling her, and then she slapped him, which you already knew."

Rose took a deep breath and tried to explain things to Jackie, "Mum, the reason the Doctor didn't tell you was because the translator is broken."

"He doesn't speak English?" Jackie said, glancing at the Doctor.

"I speak a little English," the Doctor interjected.

"Whoa, mate. Nice accent!" Mickey laughed, revelling in the fact that the Doctor wasn't fully in charge of the situation like usual.

"Ok, that's enough. Come on mum, lets just go and have a cup of tea, yeah?" Rose soothed, practically pushing Jackie out of the TARDIS, shortly followed by Mickey. "Go and put the kettle on, I'll be with you in just a minute!" She called after them.

She went back over to the Doctor and was mortified to see that he still had a pink mark on his cheek from where Jackie had slapped him. "Sorry about that. Are you ok?" She asked quietly.

"Yes, I am fine Rose. Go and see your Mother." The Doctor answered.

"You sure?" Rose checked. She knew that she was behaving like a regular mother hen, but while the translator was broken, he just seemed so vulnerable, and she just wanted to protect him.

"Yes. Go!" The Doctor said, smiling.

"Ok, if you're sure. I'll see you later then. Bye Jack!" She called as she left the TARDIS.

Walking away from the TARDIS and towards her mum's flat, Rose felt vaguely guilty about leaving the Doctor to do repair work after just being slapped for no reason by her worrier of a mum. _He'll be fine, _she reasoned with herself._ It was only a slap, it's not like he's never been slapped by mum before, and he's fine in the TARDIS, it's not like he's there alone, he's got Jack for company. You're just being stupid, worrying about nothing. _She told herself firmly. _Just like mum_.

Back in the TARDIS, Jack and the Doctor got back to work.

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_to be concluded…_

A/N: Thank you everyone so much for your reviews! They are what keep me going! I'm afraid there were more violent mood swings in this chapter, oh well. Sorry if anyone seemed a little out of character, I did try, and I know that Mickey didn't say a lot. Just imagine him standing behind Jackie looking gormless and he'll fit right in (I'm not a big fan of Mickey, he's alright, I don't hate him, but I don't love him either). Anyway, enough of me rambling. Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Chapter 5

They worked in silence for a while, until Jack broke it with: "So that was Jackie Tyler, remind me to never get on her bad side. I don't wanna ruin my good looks with a bruised face!" He paused and then, realising that he was basically talking to himself, he asked slowly, "So, Doc, how much longer do you think this will take?"

The Doctor scooted out from under the console and after giving the question some thought, replied "3 or 4 days at most."

They had been parked in the Powell Estate for the better part of a week before Rose asked the Doctor the same question again; "Doctor, Jack told me it would be fixed in 3 or 4 days. That was 6 days ago, are you sure you know what you're doin'?"

Sparks flew from the console as the Doctor attached some wires to it.

"Well, that pretty much answers my question," Rose muttered.

"One – minute – Rose." The Doctor grunted, now wrestling with some particularly large wires. He connected two of the wires together and stood back to admire his work. "Now it is nearly there, I think." He proceeded over to the console and flipped a switch.

Rose waited for a minute, but when nothing seemed to happen, she asked, "Was something supposed to happen?"

The Doctor turned to face her, "Yes it was," and then at the expectant look on her face he smiled and added, "And yes it did!"

"Ok, way to go Doc!" Jack exclaimed, "testing, testing, one, two, one, two. You getting all of this Doc!"

"Every word," The Doctor confirmed, a manic grin forming on his face. "I told you I'd get it fixed! And we all know how extraordinarily clever I am! But I must say I'm glad that I got it fixed when I did, any more of not understanding people and it would've driven me nuts! And not being able to just say whatever I fancied to people, that was driving me round the bend too, because if there's one thing I can do, it's talk!"

"Well I'm not goin' to argue with that," Rose said, smiling. Then she gave the Doctor a hug, before going and hugging Jack too. She was a little surprised when; once she had finished hugging Jack, the Doctor hugged him too!

"So, Doc, tell us; how come you know so much and yet you don't even speak another language?" Jack inquired.

"I do speak other languages, I actually speak a lot of different languages," the Doctor protested.

"So why didn't you speak English?" Rose asked.

"You humans, you're so self centred aren't you? There are other languages that are more widely spoken than English you know, they don't speak it everywhere in the universe. They don't even speak it everywhere in your world!" The Doctor countered.

"I guess that makes sense," Jack said.

Of course it makes sense," the Doctor agreed, "But that isn't the only reason I don't speak it." He became more serious, "I wanted to carry on speaking Gallifreyan because there is no one else to. It is a dead language, but along with the TARDIS it's the last little bit of home that I have, and I didn't want to forget it. That sounds all stupid and nostalgic doesn't it?"

"No, no it doesn't," Rose reassured him.

"Well while I'm in stupid soppy mode," the Doctor continued "I may as well just say thank you to you both. You both got me through this, either wise I think I'd have gone crazy not being able to communicate with anyone."

"That's ok," Rose said quietly.

"Yeah, anytime Doc," Jack said, smiling.

"So, anyway, as good as I may be at talking, we can't stand around chin-wagging all day," the Doctor said, brightening. He grinned, "Who's up for an adventure!"

THE END

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A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story and encouraged me to continue, please review and tell me what you thought of the last chapter. And thanks to HoVis for the idea of the Doctor speaking Gallifreyan because it's all he has left of home. So, anyway, that's me finished for now, should I bother trying to write another fic, that's the question. Please review!


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